Monitoring water quality with a Dell Edge Gateway

AZLOGICA is a Latin American provider of IoT solutions. Last year, the company submitted an IoT solution for water treatment plants that was selected as a Silver winner in Dell’s Connect What Matters competition, which asked participants to come up with an IoT solution with real business impact.

Water treatment happens in several steps requiring multiple tanks and various pieces of equipment, and the water requires testing throughout the process to ensure the quality complies with standards. Typically, the equipment runs continuously and testing is performed manually, making monitoring and maintaining the equipment difficult and the testing process tedious. AZLOGICA’s solution removes that difficulty and drudgery from the process, monitoring water quality and equipment efficacy and making that information available to qualified individuals on a PC or mobile device.

“The solution will capture, process, transmit and analyze data from drinking and waste water treatment plants,” explained Edgar Salas, CEO of AZLOGICS. “Data is collected through analog and digital sensors and the Dell Edge Gateway is main hub that will collect direct information in real time. That information will be processed in the AZLOGICA comprehensive IoT Software and converted to make it easy for the user to make decisions thus maintain optimal operating conditions, allowing the parameter settings such as control limits, alarms for abnormal events, undesired behaviors or tendencies, and automatic generation for operational and managerial reports designed.”

But making the solution useful to the customer requires customization – a unique challenge in itself.

“The co-creation of the solution allows users to get the desired results. The data they need, in time they need, and at the knowledge level they need,” said Salas. “Customization needs a professional team to listen, understand and transform customer needs into a solution. The challenge is having the abilities and tools to do so.”

While many winners entered with a working proof-of-concept, AZLOGICA used their winnings to develop their solution. Dell helped provide some resources on that front. As Silver winners, the company received a $5,000 cash award, business and engineering consultation, access to the Dell IoT Lab, and more to help bring the product to market.

Salas feels AZLOGICA benefitted in another way, too.

“We were the only Latin American company out of 900 applicants to win the contest,” he said. “There is a technological gap between developed and developing countries. We love to be a part of this result to demonstrate that companies like Dell have a social responsibility to give opportunities to companies like us to close this gap and help make the world a better place to share.”